Hey everyone,
I will be attempting this install in a couple of weeks. I guess you can say I am sort of a DIY guy because I love working on projects with my car myself. Is there any information that someone can provide me with that will make things go a little smoother? I'm just looking for some heads up or pointers. TIA

Is there any information that someone can provide me with that will make things go a little smoother?

Other than what's already written, just take your time .

Quote:

Originally Posted by JLac

Holy shit! LeatherZ is now charging $175 for the knob and an additional $115 for the 6 speed M pattern insert. Does anyone else make these?!

Oh man, $290 vs $60 now? Geez. And no, nobody else does that; an even more compelling reason to try it yourself . You can buy 2 and still be WAY ahead . And more importantly, yours would light up like stock, not that pale and dim orange on the LeatherZ's. At least the cap won't look like crap anymore, with the stocker in place.

My intention was to send my stock knob to LeatherZ and they would extract my shift pattern and insert it into their ZHP knob with their lighting. They said there would be a chance that when removing my shift pattern that it could get damaged and that they would not be held responsible. All of this and it would cost me $175 plus shipping. After reading elp_jc and gixxer kid's posts I decided I would buy a dremel and do this myself.

I did this mod and I am extremely happy with the results!

The stock knob does not need to be dremeled as I followed the directions from gixxer kid. You need to carefully lift the stock shift pattern from the knob. I used an eyeglass screw driver to get it out. elp_jc is correct as the double sided tape is just around the edges.

Make sure you keep everything you pull out of the stock knob. Below the shift pattern is a white piece of plastic that has the double sided tape (make sure to keep the white plastic and double sided tape for later). In order to pull out the black housing there is a hex bolt but it is underneath the LED. There are three black plastic tabs keeping the LED in place. I used the eyeglass screw driver to push the tabs in so that I could get the LED out. You’ll need to cut the clear plastic sheath around the wires, remove the wires from the connectors and then undue the leather from the shift knob so that you can pass the wires through the knob. After you get the LED out you’ll see the hex bolt to unscrew. You can now pull out the black housing with some pliers.

I then followed elp_jc’s instructions for the rest. The only thing that nobody mentioned was using the white piece of plastic when transplanting to the ZHP. I preferred using the plastic underneath the shift pattern since without it you would see the metal from the LED through the lit up ZHP.

This mod is definitely worth doing. As others have mentioned, shifts feel much more solid especially going into 1st and 2nd. Visually, it looks much better since the silver ring adds some flash and the fact that the shifter sits lower makes it look much sportier compared to stock.

My pleasure man . Glad more people are jumping to the challenge . Once you 'graduate' from this, you can pretty much do any other maintenance job on the car, quiet any rattles, etc .

Quote:

Originally Posted by mtl88

The only thing that nobody mentioned was using the white piece of plastic when transplanting to the ZHP.

Sorry about that omission, but always thought of that piece and shift pattern 'cap' as one unit, as you can't put the shift pattern back without it. But now there's no mistake it needs to be installed .

Just finished up the conversion yesterday, and I'm pretty happy. It is almost perfect, I put the led board a little high inside the knob so it's slightly uneven lit across the cover but only slightly. This def takes a lot of patience and attention to detail. You have to take your time like the other guys said. Without this DIY guide i wouldn't even know about a ZHP knob. I never had a E46 BMW. Thanks OP.

This is the ZHP knob with white light that matches the tach and speedometer.

The orange looks a lot better IMO, but only the stock lighting. The previous LeatherZ attempt at orange looked like crap IMO, so white would be better indeed, but looks weird to me. And yes, white is also better than no lighting at all ... which is part of the M tradition.

Evan throw in a combo like novillo boot or alcantara brake boot + alc. shift boot (so it matches) and I think you'll have more buyers. If it is novillo, you for sure have 1 buyer right here if the price is right.

I just finished doing this mod. I love the new lighted zhp version. The whole process goes pretty much as the DIY. The hole I drilled was 9/64. It's the smallest hole that big enough to pass both wires through. The white/beige color thingy at the bottom of the knob is just a foam ring, I removed it instead of drilling through it and put it back in after I fish the wire through. I also hollowed out the zhp knob and put in fishing weight inside in an effort to try to retain the weight. Not much difference in the end but the zhp knob is 190 gram after everything is done. I think it starts out at 180 gram. The key is to take your time. I don't have a drill press so everything was free handed with a dremel and a drill. Thank you once again for the OP and others that have contributed to this DIY.

I'm starting this with my old zhp knob. I got the shift cap off the zhp mod there is a ton of glue stuff. I will be buying a drimmel from Harbor Freights tomorrow and hopefully fix the rest of this mod by the end of the week.